Equalizer
by knives4cash
Summary: Some journeys are never meant to end. Others are never meant to begin. [Author's Note as of 10/20/15, 8:19 PM CST- Let the record show that knives4cash called it.]


Amidst the great roars of wind and hard-hitting rain, Max Caulfield struggled to make her way up the muddy slope. Shoes caked in mud, pants and shirt soaked and torn, she moved. The lighthouse was just a few dozen meters away, but it felt like Divine forces were attempting to hold her back.

"Max!" she heard Chloe Price shout behind her. "We have to _go!_" she pleaded.

The tornado was going to hit Arcadia Bay in less than an hour, but Max knew she had to get to the lighthouse. It had been there in every single vision she'd had for the past days. The answer to fix everything was there. And so, through the rain and wind, dodging flying debris, Max and Chloe made their way to the top.

"Max,_ please!_" Chloe begged as they reached the top. "Everyone's trying to run, we should be running too!"

"Chloe, your mom's down there!" Max attempted to justify, pointing to the chaotic Arcadia Bay that was down below the cliffside. "We have to do something!" she reasoned amidst the storm of nature.

"There's nothing we _can_ do!" Chloe screamed over the wind in frustration, blue hair whipping about with the rest of their clothes. "You can't stop a tornado! Rewinding time won't do a fuckin' thing, Max!"

"I can think of something!" Max screamed back. "I always do! There's always _something_ I can do!" At least, that's how it was ever since she got her power.

The two paused briefly, watching debris fly into the suction of the massive wind tunnel. Wood, rocks, earth, cars, even a few boats were already spinning with the beast, and more was being sucked up as the unstoppable destructive force moved closer inland.

"Well, what the fuck?!" Chloe demanded as she glared at her friend. "You can rewind time! Big fuckin' whoop! How the fuck are you gonna stop that?!" she wondered. "Max, we're going to die out here!"

"Don't do this to me now!" Max shrieked back. "We can think of something! I know we can! You've always been here with me, Chloe! You've been with me every step of the way, don't leave me now!" she pleaded before going pale. She slowly began to sway and stagger.

"Max, what is it?!" Chloe asked as she moved to help her friend. "Did you figure it out?!" she hopefully asked as she grabbed Max's arm, maintaining her balance. "What is it?!"

"You…" Max finally realized as she fell to her knees.

_"What?!"_ Chloe asked. Her friend's lips had moved briefly, but she hadn't been able to hear over the sound of the massive fucking tornado that was on its way. "Max, what can we do?!"

"I think I know why all of this is happening," Max whispered to herself, heart racing as every single piece began to fall into place.

"What?!" Chloe asked again, but this time she was able to decipher most of what Max had said. "What is it?! Max, do you know what to do?!" she pleaded, more than happy for a solution to this problem.

Max looked up to her greatest friend. Blue hair flew, her beanie long lost to the wind. Her skin was plastered by mud and rain and cut by sharp debris. But she was hopeful. Innocent and hopeful. Max had trouble speaking up.

"Chloe... it's you," Max stated as she pulled her friend close to her. It was the most sincere hug she could give.

"What the fuck are you going on about, Max?!" Chloe wondered, voice shaking as she began to think that Max had gone mad. Kneeling down in front of her, she grabbed her friend by the shoulders. "What do you mean, Max?!"

"Everything!" she screamed as she slowly began to fight the tears. "Everything that's happened has happened because of you!"

"You're not making any fucking sense!" Chloe screamed back, grabbing her friend by the shoulders. "What the fuck did I do?!"

Slowly accepting the horrific consequences of her actions, Max Caulfield finally realized aloud, amidst the wind and rain, _"You lived, Chloe!"_

Falling silent, Chloe took a few seconds, thinking about her friend's words amidst the storm. "I have no idea what you're-"

"I wouldn't expect you to!" Max interrupted. "Chloe, it's the butterfly effect! One minor change to a deterministic, non-linear system! We make them all the time, and they change our future, the way things are!"

"Max, what does that have to do with any of this?!" Chloe demanded, her patience gone completely. All hell was bearing down on her town, her mother was probably running around the town trying to find her; and she knew that Max's family was trying to get in touch with her. The time for Max to do her heroic save-the-universe shit was now or never.

Summoning the courage to look Chloe in the eyes, Max summarized, "All that I have done has led to this moment! When you chased Nathan into the bathroom, you were supposed to die there! But then I accidentally intervened! I rewound time for the first time! Everything that happened after that changed!"

"But! But!" Shaking her soaked head, Chloe refused, "No fucking way! You can't pin Nature's bullshit on me, Max!"

"That's got to be what's causing all of this!" Max explained, unable to hold her tears back. "Don't you understand, Chloe?! I saved you! I changed the future! I saved your life four times! But you were supposed to die in that bathroom!"

"Fuck you, Max!" she screamed, pushing her friend into the mud and moving to her feet. "_Fuck you!_ Killing me isn't going to change _anything!_"

"I'm not going to kill you, Chloe!" Max consoled as she stood up. Taking one last look around, she watched the tornado growing ever larger as it neared the bay, she saw the beast slowly consuming her hometown; and turning back to her friend, she saw the frightened Chloe Price, clothes soaked and flapping in the wind. "I didn't mean for any of this to happen, Chloe!" she verily declared. "I'm sorry! I promise I'll never rewind time ever again!"

"So then what _are_ you going to do?!" Chloe demanded as she began to step back, already formulating a few plans on surviving the imminent shitstorm on her own.

Raising both of her hands together, Max Caulfield stated, "What I have to."

And the world came to a standstill. A low hum filled her ears as the world slowly began to reverse, and she felt herself kneeling again with Chloe in front of her, and then again just as quickly she was moving back down the cliff with rain falling up, and the noises of nature filled that hum as reality rewound.

Concentrating, Max saw day turn to night, and night turn to day as the entire town blurred together, flashing in front of her, voices and noises from people and machines melding together into one monotone buzz. Friends, enemies, strangers, computer screens, all flashed and blurred in front of her. She was laying in bed, sitting at her desk, in class, eating breakfast, laying in bed again, repeating as things slowly turned red.

Motion sickness took over her body as the days continued flying back through night, and night through day, but Max stayed the course until she finally fell to her knees whilst vomiting blood.

She couldn't take it anymore. Her head was ringing, her eyes were pulsing, vision blurred and stained as she staggered and shook on her hands and knees.

But she was dry. It was quiet. There was nothing except her ragged breath and the faint dripping of blood on the cold, hard bathroom tile. Her vision was still fading in and out like a heartbeat pulse, but at least she didn't feel like she was dying.

And drowning in her blood was a vibrant, blue butterfly. Flapping its wings, it valiantly tried to escape its doom. But the creature slowly succumbed as Max fell on her side. Vision and hearing were fading in and out. Max fought, trying to stay conscious.

She watched the poor insect struggle its last as she heard a door slam open. A few seconds of shoe scuffing, followed by Nathan Prescott telling himself to relax and shortly joined by Chloe Price attempting to blackmail him.

_Arguing._

Curling up into a fetal position, Max watched the butterfly sprawl around, blue soaked in red.

_Slamming._

Its antennae frenzied as its wings became too heavy to flap.

_Panicking._

Max shut her eyes and braced for it.

_**BAM!**_

Opening her eyes, she saw that the butterfly had breathed its last and finally succumbed.

_**THUD! CL-CLANK!**_

Scuffling, a door slamming, quickly followed by the school alarm going off. Panicked cries, men barking orders, chaos outside.

Max slowly sat up as her head finally started clearing up. She took a few deep breaths and tried to keep it together. There was one last thing she had to do.

Crawling around the stall corner, Max made her way over to Chloe. Blood was already spilling on the floor as she lay prone on the ground. Despite the chaos going on outside, Max could see and hear Chloe breathing. Ragged and strained, but she was there.

"Chloe…" Max muttered, crawling through the mess and pulling her long lost friend into her lap.

"M… Max?" she breathed, not sure of what was going on. "Max… Caulfield?" she wondered. Gasping for life, she asked, "H-...how did y-..." the words wouldn't come.

"Shhh," Max comforted, stroking her friend's bright, blue hair away. "You don't have to worry, Chloe. It's me. I'm here," she reaffirmed as tears began to come again. "I'm here with you," she stated as she made sure that Chloe's head was firmly in her lap. Taking her hand into her own, Max held firm.

"M… ax," she breathed. "I'm… glad it's… you," she confessed, gazing into her friend's eyes.

Sniffing between blinks, Max wiped her eyes as she smiled. "I'm glad I could be with you, Chloe."

Gently smirking, she huffed. Reminiscing, she recalled, "We… had fun… adventures… didn't we."

Nodding, Max kept a firm grip on Chloe's hand and head. "We did, Chloe. We did."

Breathes becoming more and more of a struggle, Chloe asked, "Do me… favor, Ma… ax?"

Leaning down, she begged, "What? What is it, Chloe?" Swallowing hard, she verily declared, "Anything, I promise."

Struggling, Chloe breathed, "Don't… forget… me, Max? Please… don't? Again?"

Choking up, Max nodded. "I could never forget you, Chloe. I know I never talked to you after I left, but you were in my thoughts every day, and I'm so, so, so sorry!"

"Can't… change… past," Chloe forgave with a smile. "Be... too... easy."

Eyelids fluttering, Chloe dazed off into space as she breathily muttered, "Life… sure is… strange..."

With evacuation procedures being conducted outside, Max held her friend. There was nothing else she could do now.

* * *

**A/N: **So as one can tell, I'm predicting the ending for "Life Is Strange". Feel free to leave feedback, constructive or not!


End file.
